Thursday, January 31, 2013

Today's the day! Both the You & Me and the Day to Day collections are available for purchase in the Elle's Studio shop! You've seen over the last month how much I LOVE the You & Me collections and now it was my turn to play with the Day to Day collection! This one may just be my new favorite.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

I'm just getting started with the concept of PL, but I love the fact that it's something fresh & new.

I'm taking the monthly approach meaning I am choosing an activity or event from that month and highlight it. I would love to work towards doing PL on a weekly basis, but for now; it's just not happening. I have made no rules or restrictions for myself. I simply want to enjoy this whole process.

Friday, January 25, 2013

I know I'm not the only one who gets sucked into the fantastic world of Pinterest for hours. It's a lovely little place where we can dream of being domestic divas & accomplished artist. It's an online list of "someday I am going to hoping to do..." all of these wonderful fantastic things!

I have pinned and pinned and I'm pretty sure I have pinned a few things twice. But very rarely do I ever get to actually do them. Today, I worked from home. Which not only gave me the chance to stay in my super comfy sweats all day but I also got a few of my "someday" pins off my list.

You may remember I chose SIMPLIFY as my one little word for 2013. This also pertains to cutting down on how much we spend on everyday things. So, to start us off I made my own laundry soap ::

{Total Cost - under $23. I'll keep you updated on how long this last us. It's seems to be a HUGE amount!}

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Next on the list :: Making homemade syrup. Now my hubby is a big Aunt Jamima Butter Light fan. The cheap stuff isn't allowed. But, my Mom used to make homemade syrup all the time when we were little & I have been wanting to try this for awhile now. Turns out, it's super easy!

I'll let you know if it "passes" the test next time we have pancakes.

I'm not sure on the cost of this, but it contains stuff I already had in the pantry {other than the maple flavoring} so that's a bonus!

I only made 1/2 a batch as I wanted to try it out before we committed fully. So think double if you follow the recipe linked below.

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Then I made a double batch of cookies. This actually wasn't anything I had pinned. More like I was craving chocolate & cook dough so I rolled with it. However, freezing cookie dough balls was an item on my "pinned" list. So, we're full circle now. You still with me? ;)

Fresh eggs from our hen house.

Thank you Chickens.

{This guy was out roaming with a few of his hot "chicks" today so they got to finish Ella's grilled cheese from lunch.}

I only baked half of the dough & froze the rest for a later date.

Now .... must hide these from the hubby or they'll never get baked.

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This one, I thought was just brilliant when I pinned it. So perfect for my boys who love the oatmeal packets. I had 1/2 a container of Quick Oats in the pantry so I added the brown sugar & got 10 packets from just what I had. This will save us $ on the next grocery bill.